The Nanny/Headscratchers

General

Shouldn't kids who grew up in a house with a British father and a British butler have developed something of an accent? Even if Max was rather distant and Niles didn't spend much time with them, you would think that they would have been around enough for the kids to hear them speak and learned something through sheer osmosis.

• First off, they go to an American school, meaning they already spend most of their time surrounded by American accents. Second, the whole reason the show began was that neither the father nor the butler could really handle raising the children, and needed someone to bring in someone who could do the whole messy "raising kids" business for them, thus they hired The Nanny (plus, she had style, she had flair!). Presumably, the kids have gone through a series of American nannies, and that's where they learned their American accents. Heck, by the later parts of the series, the kids have even started learning to speak Yiddish as a Second Language and have adopted some of Fran's other speech patterns.
• Children pick up their speech patterns from their peers, not their parents. I mean, think about it; do you talk the same way as your parents?
• It's also been shown that Sarah (Maxwell's late wife) was American.
• This troper knows an American couple that live in England. Their little kid has a British accent. Generally, while you can pick up accents from your parents, you'll pick up the accent of the area you grow up in.

"The Nanny Behind the Man"

How Maxwell treats Fran in this episode Just Bugs Me. A brief summary of the episode: Max wants to get a playwright under contract before Andrew Lloyd Webber gets him. To do that Fran, at Max's request, gets Yetta to wine and dine him. The plan works but it turns out that he's had writer's block for years and only Act 1 is done. So Fran, again at Max's request, gets Yetta to dump him, causing him to lose the contract to Weber. Problem is, that his relationship (specifically the dumping) enables the playwright to get over his block and finish the play - making Weber a lot of money. Despite the fact that everything Fran does is with Max's approval and in order to help him, he blames Fran for everything going wrong and the audience is supposed to agree with him. I realize the show runs on Rule of Funny, but it just wasn't funny. All it did was make Max look like an asshole.

• Are you sure the audience was supposed to side with Maxwell? The show's usually not afraid to show him as being a hypocrite or a jerk.

"Honeymoon's Overboard", and possibly the whole Sixth Season

I really hated C.C.'s callous nature about Fran's well-being after Fran and Maxwell get lost on their honeymoon. The previous episode, which had Fran and Maxwell finally tie the knot, showed C.C. finally relenting in her pursuit of Maxwell's affection, even amicably turning to Niles for a romantic relationship. But she somehow turns back into the jealous Rich Bitch she was throughout the series in this episode. She's shocked to discover Maxwell's disappeared, but she's totally uncaring that Fran disappeared with him. It makes the entire sixth season feel like a Post Script Season.

• • Yeah, but after C.C. relented, she then grabbed a piece of the decorations to use as a veil, and started to walk down the aisle until Niles had to forcibly remove her. She never really gave up on Max.
    • Or at least she didn't give up on Max until Niles and C.C. had their big blowout fight in Season 6 after Niles proposed to her and she shot him down; Niles points out to her that she's pining for a man who will never love her romantically, and that Max and Fran are now married and about to have kids together. He then brings up the possibility that C.C. will end up being a bitter alcoholic in rehab if she doesn't get a grip. C.C. realizes Niles is right, and the next thing we know, Fran and Max are walking on on Niles and C.C. in bed

The episode with the tabloid cover

In the episode where the trashy tabloid falsely alleges that Max was cheating on his first wife with Fran, why oh why did Maggie instantly believe it? The paper was a tabloid for crying out loud! The same tabloid was also printing a story about late funnyman Redd Foxx's ghost being trapped in an apple later in that episode. Maggie got into Columbia University, so she was supposed to be intelligent right? So why did she coming storming in completely convinced that the story was true?

• Personal guilt over being so happy at getting a new mom. She was the only one that really remembered her mom and it was bothering her deep down.
• It's was (rather pathetically) explained in the episode by Maggie to Fran. She said it was because the UST between Fran and Max was so strong and so obvious, what else was she supposed to believe. She also mentions that this helps her understand why A) her father hired a door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman to raise his children and B) she was still their Nanny despite the fact that Maggie was in college, Brighton was old enough to drive, and Gracie was somewhere around Age 12-14 and, possibly being the smartest person in the family, more than capable of taking care of herself. Not the most solid explanation in the world, but at least they did try.
  • Well that's all lampshade-hanging, but you cross that with the fact that sometimes feelings just aren't rational and it works fine.

Maxwell turning down Cats, Hair, and Tommy

• Are we supposed to think he's an idiot for turning down Hair, Tommy, and Cats. First off, if you'd never heard of it and didn't know what a big deal it would be would you produce Cats? No, no you wouldn't. Also, Hair has a song titled Sodomy. Yeah I think Maxwell's first glance reaction of it being a dog was accurate. And as for Tommy... it involves a religion that uses pinball for worship. At first glances all three sound stupid but they were big hits... and how would Maxwell know that? Also, timeline issues. Hair was put on in the late sixties, Tommy in the seventies, and Cats in the eighties. So how old is Maxwell and how long has he been doing this?
  • It's a joke, which plays on hindsight being 20/20. Relax.

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